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cardsharp
Who Wants To Be
A Billionaire? The Sunday Times’ annual Rich List, published every May, always makes fascinating reading reflected Cardsharp. Who is not intrigued to see how the billionaires (it used to be millionaires!) made, or in many cases, inherited, their fortunes? For years it was also fascinating for us in the greeting card trade to see at least two or sometimes three of our alumni represented in some shape or form in the list. Not so this year.
The Sunday Times Rich List was somewhat truncated this year, reduced from 500 inclusions to 250 people, but Cardsharp reckons that even if it had gone down to the 500th richest in the land it is doubtful whether any cardies would have made an appearance. This year it was a completely card-free zone. How things have changed? Just over 25 years ago Simon Elvin regularly appeared in the list on the basis of his company being worth an estimated £35 million. Cardsharp recalls he came in around 70th in the list back then. These days, just to get to number 249, you need to be worth a minimum of a £1 billion that’s inflation for you and just shows how in the last generation the ‘Super Rich’ have got exponentially super richer than the rest of us. Massively! Back in the early days of the list Andrew Brownsword, the founder of his eponymous company which launched the Forever Friends brand regularly appeared pretty high up (Cardsharp recollects a highpoint of him featuring around 30th). This was based on the profitability of his company when it was privately owned and then later when Andrew sold it to Hallmark for an estimated £200+ million. This, added to his hotel and property interests kept him in the list right up to last year.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
And when the bar for inclusion was much lower, other cardies would appear periodically. Anders Hedlund, co-founder of International Greetings; Don Lewin, founder of Clintons; Ron Wood, the founder of the now defunct Birthdays retail chain all made appearances. Interestingly in the 2018 list, the industry’s only four entries appeared on two pages of the 160 page publication which was distributed with the Sunday newspaper. Andrew and Christina Brownsword topped the ‘greeting card list’, cited as the 423rd most wealthy UK inhabitants, with their interests valued at a very conservative £295 million. Above left: The Sunday Times’ 2021 Rich List was a card-free zone this year. Above right: You need a much bigger treasure trove these days to make it into the Rich List. Below: Christina and Andrew Brownsword (centre) with William McCracken, the former md of Ling Design.
A few pages on and Gatacre brothers William and Thomas, co-founders of Jellycat received their just deserts for their winning take with their plush and gift company, appearing in 723rd position, valued at £155 million. And recognising that while his business interests are now a lot broader than the own brand cards, wrap, crackers and stationery that IG Design Group supplies to retailers, Anders Hedlund retains a stake in the company he cofounded back in 1979 with his (and his family’s) wealth put at £153 million, 761st in the 2018 top 1,000 Rich List. The other inclusion was for Dean and Janet Hoyle, founders of Card Factory who came in ranked as 427th, against another conservative estimate of £290 million in that 2018 list and appeared again in last year’s list. Thinking back, it occurred to Cardsharp, most of the aforementioned people’s names would mean little to any